Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Sometimes you stumble across a portfolio where the artist only has a couple of comic based pieces, other times there can be just one work so brilliant, you'd risk being stoned to death by fellow art lovers for putting something else beside it. These are Random Works of Wow and illustrating the point this week is Dave Cockrum. An industry icon who among other things created Nightcrawler, originally for use in a team called The Outsiders, as part of the DC's Legion of Super-Heroes title. No not that outsiders team, this one;

It's hard case to think 'What If' when it comes to the fate of one of the flagship characters of the 'All-New, All-Different X-Men', but this picture (colored by Gary Chamberlain) still gets the imagination flowing.

Nightcrawler here (don't think I can call him Kurt) still has an acrobatic look about him, though slightly seems more goblin/ demonish than he's ever been fighting for Marvel's mutant rights.

If universal crossovers ever get the green light again, having the actual Kurt fight beside the Legion and have one of them smirk 'you fight like one of us' or something similar might not set the industry on fire, but it would be a pretty decent tip of the hat.

5 comments:

Very nice - Cockrum's art has always had that 70s vibe to it, which I find delightful.I got my latest edition of my Legion APA today, and for our 20th anniversary edition later this summer we all have to draw a Legionnaire for the wraparound cover; I only wish I could draw as good as this[!].

Nightcrawler is a favorite of mine. Seriously- this post brings me such joy. I knew he was created for this- but to actually see it- awesome. Back when I was a young-one: I remember my mates and I would play X-Men (like at sleepovers and birthdays- based off the NES game, and the awesome cartoon Pryde of The X-Men) and I always picked to be the fuzzy blue elf. You know those sticky soft-rubber hand/swatter things you'd get from the quarter-machines? I'd tie a blue one onto the center/rear belt-loop of my pants- as a tail, and go BAMF'in all over the living-room... Those were the days......

Hey King - glad I could cement the visual for you - I was the same. I thought he was for membership in the Legion itself, but this sketch made it all just slot into place.

Maybe all Nightcrawler fans are from video games you reckon? I hooked into the elf playing the Konami coin-op game that bankrupted me as a child, and have played the guy ever since, from the Sega X-Men game through to X-Men Legends. It saves plenty of lives when you can teleport huh.

I never got why he wasn't a core part of the Fox X-Men cartoon. Could they not find a decent german voice actor? It was so long before he come in I thought the series would end first.

And hey, if you still wear the blue hand and 'Bamf!' around, that's okay you can say - we're all friends here.

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